[ANPPOM-L] CFP: Contemporary Music and Spirituality

[carlos palombini]

CFP: Contemporary Music and Spirituality

The revival of religious or spiritually-inspired music in the last twenty years by so many composers (such as Adams, Andriessen, Birtwistle, Grisey, Gubaydulina, Harvey, Henze, MacMillan, Messiaen, Pärt, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Tavener) and many artists is a sign of a profound change in the arts and their engagement with society.  This conference will seek to explore why and how these composers and others have sought to convey religious or spiritual expression through music.  How does this music engage with and transform the traditional narratives of modernity, and how has this music created a vision for the role of music in the twenty-first century?  How can contemporary music shape our understanding of the divine in a so-called secular age, and what does this say about the nature of music and spirituality? 

This conference will take place at Southbank Centre, London in collaboration with the Royal Musical Association from 1-3 February 2008.  Keynote speakers at the conference include the composers Jonathan Harvey, James MacMillan and Francis Pott.  It will dovetail with the opening of the Messiaen festival at Southbank Centre.  As part of the conference, there will be a roundtable discussion on Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps on Sunday 3 February from 2.30 p.m, chaired by Robert Sholl with participants Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Jonathan Harvey.  This event will include live performances of extracts from the Quartet performed by the Nash Ensemble, and will be followed at 6 p.m. by a complete performance of the work.   

Proposals for papers (of 20 minutes) on any subject related to the main conference theme should be sent to robert.sholl at tvu.ac.uk by November 20.  Proposals should be in English, and contain an abstract of 300 words maximum.  They also should include your name, a short biographical note, and your contact details.

-- 
carlos palombini (dr p)
professor adjunto de musicologia
universidade federal de minas gerais
<cpalombini em gmail.com>

"Cosa odiosissima è il parlar molto di se." (Giacomo Leopardi, Pensieri XL, 1845)